The present invention is directed to control devices for bicycle transmissions and, more particularly, to an indicator unit for a bicycle shift control device.
Many bicycle shift control devices have indicators associated with them to indicate the currently selected gear of the bicycle transmission. Derailleur operated transmissions usually have a front derailleur shift control device and a rear derailleur shift control device, so one indicator is usually mounted on the front derailleur shift control device to indicate the currently selected gear for the front derailleur, and another indicator is usually mounted to the rear derailleur shift control device to indicate the currently selected gear for the rear derailleur. Since the shift control devices are usually mounted on opposite sides of the bicycle handlebar, the user must inconveniently look to opposite ends of the handlebar to ascertain the state of both bicycle transmissions.
One attempt to overcome the inconvenience noted above is shown in JP 61-5348. That publication shows a combined front and rear shift control device that is integrally formed with the handlebar stem extension. The combined shift control device includes indicators for indicating the state of each bicycle transmission, but the unit is highly specialized and can not be used with existing shift control devices. Another attempt to overcome the inconveniences noted above is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,033. That publication shows a separate indicator unit for centrally indicating the state of both the front and rear bicycle transmissions, wherein the indicator unit may be used with existing shift control devices. However, the indicator unit uses a pair of rotating wheels with numbers printed on them to indicate the currently selected gears. This requires the rider to directly look at the indicator unit and read each number to determine the currently selected gear, which can be inconvenient in a racing environment.